One image recording material utilizing microcapsules containing a light-sensitive composition employs synthetic high molecular resin microcapsules containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a coloring agent precursor as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,209. In the image recording process using the system, the microcapsules are imagewise hardened by imagewise exposure, unhardened microcapsules are ruptured by pressing, and color images are obtained from the coloring agent precursors thus released from the microcapsules. By easy processing of this dry system, images having high quality are obtained. However the system also has a disadvantage that the light sensitivity of the light-sensitive material is quite low as compared to silver halide materials.
A recording material having high light sensitivity and capable of giving images having high quality by easy dry processing overcoming this difficulty is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 868,385 filed by Fuji Photo. Film Co., Ltd. In the recording material, at least a light-sensitive silver halide, a reducing .agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming material are coated on a support, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming material are encapsulated in the same microcapsules.
An image recording process using the abovedescribed light-sensitive material is also disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 868,385 filed by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. According to the image recording process, latent images are first formed by imagewise exposing the light-sensitive material and the light-sensitive material is developed by heating, whereby the polymerizable compound is polymerized in the portions having latent images to form a polymer and to harden the microcapsules. Then, the light-sensitive material is superposed on an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer capable of receiving the color image-forming material, followed by pressing them to rupture at least a part of the microcapsules in the portions having no latent image, whereby the color image-forming material is transferred onto the image-receiving material to form images on the image-receiving material.
Also, an image-recording apparatus capable of using the above-described light-sensitive material for automatically performing all the steps of heat developing the light-sensitive material after imagewise exposure, superposing the light-sensitive material on an image-receiving material, and pressing the assembly to obtain images on the image-receiving material by image transfer is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 209461/87 filed Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. (The term "OPI" as used herein means an "unexamined published application".)
In such an image-recording process, a layer of the image-receiving material contains a developer. After heat-developing the light-sensitive material, the light-sensitive material is superposed on the image-receiving material followed by pressing them to transfer an image onto the image-receiving material, and after transferring the image, the unnecessary light-sensitive material is separated from the image-receiving material and discarded. However, since the apparatus used requires a means for separating the light-sensitive material from the image-receiving material as well as a means for transporting the light-sensitive material after separation and a means for discarding the light-sensitive material, the image-recording apparatus is complicated in design and large in size.